check your oil filter

[larryd]

this is becoming an all to familiar incident for me. Picture this....

your driving down the street and poof a nice cloud of smoke off the back of your car and your oil light comes on. You coast to a stop and check it out.. Nothing is obviouslyl leaking as the whole bottom side of your car is covered in oil and its dripping from everywhere.

Anyhow I came to find that my oil filter came loose and the car lost almost all of its oil.. thats the 3rd time this has happened to me in 3 weeks so this time I did some research on it to find this isnt a non common problem.

Apparently the base the filter screws onto is known to come loose from engine vibration i suspect so no matter how tight your filter is the base comes loose and you lose your oil.

I took mine all apart today and put red thread lock on it as well as an OEM mitsu filter so Im hoping that should solve the issue for me. Everyone keep their fingers crossed for me that no major damage was done from the oil loss for me.

So, this is just a friendly reminder to check your oil filters every so often and make sure there on nice and tight..

 

[Airpoppoff]

How many miles was it on for after it happend larry???

 

[larryd]

which time.. the first time was right after a rebuild.. less then 150 miles.. the 2nd time was about 10 miles later. this last time was after another rebuild and about 400 miles on it.

 

[BoostinFWD]

Grit your teeth a little when installing next time
Gotta use more than 2 fingers man

 

[Airpoppoff]

hmmm, thats odd, like every time you fill up for gas basically you should check to see if your filters tight....
that sucks just cross your fingers and hope it doesent do it again

 

[jim97gst]

LarryD - You posted recently that were looking for new motor mounts. I assume your car was vibrating more than normal due to the bad mounts. In the research you did on this problem, is the problem almost always related to excessive engine vibration? Or can this happen on a motor that is mounted pretty well?

Also, did you do anything special to prep the threads for the thread lock or did you just wipe them down with a rag and rub it on?

 

[ryguy79]

Well whaddaya know. This happened to me today. I caught it as it happened and parked it. Oil was pouring out around the filter opening. I thought the filter had come loose but I guess I was wrong. I didn't get to investigate it much because by the time I'd gotten it towed back home it was pouring out, and now its dark. Its only been about 360 miles since the last oil change.

Good thing its the weekend.

 

[rdrkt]

Larry I told you this once but I'm going to repeat myself for everyone else’s benefit. I lost my brand new Jeff hill 91 rod evo piston motor with less than 500 miles on it AND my turbo when my oil filter came off.

I have no faith whatsoever in the stock oil filter setup. When I got my motor rebuilt last time I used a Mustang oil filter relocation kit with stainless steel lines and Russell fittings. It cost about 250 bucks in parts but you will NEVER have to worry about it again. That was enough for me but there are several other benefits. It uses a Mustang oil filter which holds an extra half a quart of oil. There are a million and a half styles of mustang oil filters so you have plenty of options. It makes oil changes a breeze because the filter is right in front of the driver’s side wheel tucked away. Theoretically the oil should be cooler because its not right next to your downpipe.

That is the only surefire solution for anyone that is worried about this. Good luck

 

[GSTwkd]

Damn. I hope nothing happen to your motor. My filters have never seemed loose to me when I've done my oil changes but I'll keep an eye out for now. I like rdrkt's idea. My buddy's cobra has that and it makes oil changes gravy. I would do that Larry cause it seems like the your filters dont wanna stay on. Good luck.

 

[InFlames]

Well, my fingers are crossed

 

[1FAST2G]

Why don't you try this. Get a hose clamp big enough to go around the oil filter, then get a wire and tie it to the hose clamp, tighten the hose clamp around the oil filter once the oil filter has been installed and is nice and tight. Then take the other end of the wire and tie it to some part of the frame or something this way the oil filter can't back itself off no more.

 

[SPEEDY]

Hmmm.. I have not had that problem as of yet, thank "GOD" and I use the oem filter every 2500 miles also. Mine seems to be pretty tight everytime I go to change my oil. Thanks for the advce! I will keep an eye on it now for sure.

 

[NDgsx]

someone else has heard of safety wire, I think I'm in the twilight zone. K&N filters come with a nut that has a hole on then to run safety wire through quickly

This is a common problem with the oil/water coolers, but I've never had it with a 90 style cooler.

 

[tjh-dsm]

Ok, this might sound obvious, but are you using a new crush washer every time you change your oil filter? If not, that is likely the problem. When you buy em', you gotta ask Mitsu for the washer or they won't give it to you. A guy on the SWDSM list blew a brand new Evo motor setup because he didn't have that washer on his oil filter and it backed out on him. Again, I might be Captain Obvious, but then again it's easily overlooked....

 

[95GST]

The best way is to convert to a external oil cooler because you can then tighten the filter as much as you want. I use large visegrip to tighten mine. You don't want to do this on a 91+ liquid cooler setup because it will crush the cooler in no time.

This doesn't stop the possibility that the o-ring may burst but I think the tighter it is the less chance for the o-ring to blow.

Safety wire is also a good idea.

 

[PHANTOM TSi]

hey rdrkt, where can you find the setup that you have for the oil filter, thanks

 

[rdrkt]

1 Single Filter relocation kit SUM-G4985 $34.95
4 90 degree swivel fitting EAR-809108 $20.95ea
1 -8 Hose 10ft leangth EAR-310008 $61.95
4 -8 to 3/8" adapter fitting EAR-981608 $4.50ea

That is the part list that I used. However if I had to do it again I would substitute Russell fittings for the Earl’s fittings because the Russell is a higher quality piece. It isn’t exactly cheap but there are a lot of benefits like piece of mind.

 

[DSMu4ia]

There is some brilliant guy that likes to post about this subject alot.

Maybe you should have him come and put your filter on.

After all, he does say its all "user error."

Larry: Did you get a 90-style setup on your new motor? If ya did, just crank it down, safey wire it, and fab up a bracket so it can't back off.

 

[larryd]

i dont belive its a 90 style setup.. im pretty sure its a 91 but not positive.. regardless the oil filter hasnt leaked at all since I put red threadlock on it but unfortuantely it appears to be to little to late as I think my oil pump is going again

 

[Rob]

ive seen that oil filter relocation mod do you think this would help that problem and not have you crossing your fingers? not sure if the kit comes with a different base that the filter screws into ? but mybe worth looking into =0)

 

[larryd]

yes the oil filter relocation is really the thing to do if your worried about it.. i just wanted to let everyone else know to check their filters so they dont go through waht i am

 

[Rob]

made me think about it tonight before i drove home from work and got down there and checked by hand =0)~ got me worried...another good thing about the Talon/Eclipse the filter is right there <Small> but there.

 

[Enigma_Man]

It's not the filter that you use that matters really.

The reason why I've seen that 99% of filters come loose is the threaded rod they screw onto. That comes loose semi-easily. When you unthread the filter, you're also trying to unthread the rod from where it mounts too.

I lost an engine to this happening (had owned the car for 2 weeks) cause the filter backed off, I replaced it, not knowing to check the center thing, and then it happened again, toasting the motor, and causing my turbo to die less than 8k miles later.

What you want to do is buy a 24mm deep socket (I believe that's the size) and torque it to exactly the spec as listed for it, in the manual.

You don't want to go too tight, cause this causes other badness I forget exactly what though. You need to use a torque wrench, and do it right.

As long as you do that every time you change the oil, it'll be fine.

-Jesse

 

[Tallen]

mines all good. thx for the down low larry

 

[larryd]

Originally posted by Enigma_Man
I lost an engine to this happening (had owned the car for 2 weeks) cause the filter backed off, I replaced it, not knowing to check the center thing, and then it happened again, toasting the motor, and causing my turbo to die less than 8k miles later.

someone that feels my pain